An ACX Bot?Photo by Alex Knight on Pexels.com



Silly, slightly off-topic answers are a strong hint that you are writing to an ACX bot!



In case you haven't read the previous article on my recent experience with ACX, I'll give you a brief resume before talking about how to spot an ACX bot.



ACX accused me of fraudulent audiobook sales in June last year. They don't discuss it with you, or even give you an opportunity to ask questions, explain, or even apologise. You are guilty and you are scum.



End of story.



Fraudulent Claims of Fraudulent Sales?



Well, I hoped that it was, anyway. Then a few days ago, almost exactly a year later, I received an email from Audible saying that 12 of my audiobooks had shown traits of further fraudulent sales. They actually showed me the list, which really surprised me. However, I have never promoted eight of those twelve ever, because they were volumes 16-23 in a series and authors always promote the first three or five even. I want readers to start my series on volume one, not volume 18! It makes obvious sense, right?



However, the same person had narrated all twelve of the books.



So, having been told that my account was to be closed, I wrote to the 124 narrators of my 174 audiobooks using the ACX message board.



ACX Bot



The next day, I received a very shirty letter from a DEBRA from ACX. It was very long-winded, and slightly off-topic, but basically it told me in dodgy legalese about the consequences that I could face, if I continued to threaten 'my narrators'.



I asked ACX/Audible to show me the threats, but am still awaiting a reply after two months. That is typical ACX/Audible high-handedness. All I did was inform the narrators that the books that they had worked so hard on would disappear in a puff of wind when my account was eventually closed.



Many contacted me.



So did Debra.



However, not with a reply to my previous question, but with even more ludicrous threats. I called her out again , but the cycle repeated... four times in all!



Then the penny dropped. Debra could not read or react in a human manner because 'she' is an ACX bot.



On the fifth stupid email, I wrote only that discussing such matters with ACX bots no longer interested me. That was two months ago and I have not heard from Debra since.



I can imagine a group of spotty, spineless, youths in Silicone Valley having a great laugh at my expense for trying to discuss any serious topic with an ACX bot. However, emails containing stodgy, slightly off-topic, seemingly automated text littered with dodgy legalese that do not answer concerns that you have previously brought up are examples of how I think that you can work out how to spot an ACX bot.